A Mild Ratings Boost For Trump's Miss USA

The Miss USA pageant, owned by billionaire Donald Trump, had a decent though not spectacular night. Nielsen's overnight TV ratings for Sunday showed a mild boost in its viewership. An average of about 5.25 million viewers, about 5% more than last year, tuned in to see Miss Michigan Rima Fakih take the crown.

After the year of hype aimed at buoying ratings (see our weekend post Trump's Miss USA Pageant, the Donald can breathe a sigh of relief but probably isn't overjoyed with the results. The 5% boost was not bad considering the drop in pageant viewing over the years but it was quite a bit short of Nielsen's own predictions back in February, when the ratings agency predicted an audience of 7 million.

A question directed at runner-up Miss Oklahoma on the Arizona immigration law seemed planted to stir another wave of turmoil, but the contestant's collected, though controversial, reaction isn't likely to precipitate the Carrie Prejean gay marriage drama of 2009 (watch the answer below).

Trump's bigger problem of the night had nothing to do with the pageant but instead the dismal ratings of his reality-hit Celebrity Apprentice, which hit a series low for viewership, Nielsen reported.

The high-profile workplace competition took a 21% ratings hit versus the prior week. Tough competition was probably part of the problem, as Celebrity Apprentice faced CBS reality-rival Survivor's season finale. But it wasn't helped by its pageant lead-in, and may even have been hurt by it.

At least Trump, who can turn his focus back to his show, won't have to go up against Survivor next week when it airs its season finale.